Mayor discovers predecessor locked in anti-freeze appointees through staggered terms
Strategic Board Appointments Block Four-Year Freeze Plan
In an eleventh-hour move, former Mayor Eric Adams appointed four new members and reappointed existing members to the Rent Guidelines Board on December 19, 2025, effectively blocking Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s signature campaign promise of a four-year rent freeze on nearly one million stabilized apartments. The appointments ensured that Adams-appointed members would retain majority control of the nine-member board through at least December 2026, preventing Mamdani from engineering a rent freeze for over a year.
Staggered Terms Delay Mamdani Majority Control
Adams’ appointees include Doug Apple as board chair; Niskanen Center housing analyst Alex Armlovich and urban planner Reed Jordan as public members; Legal Aid Society attorney Adan Soltren as tenant representative; and Robert Ehrlich of Lazarus Karp Ehrlich McCourt as owner representative. The terms range from two to four years. Mamdani retains the power to appoint the chair and representatives for landlords, tenants and public members in 2026, but cannot flip the board until 2027 when the remaining five terms expire. “We are just as committed to a four-year rent freeze for the more than two million rent-stabilized tenants who call this city home and deserve relief amidst this affordability crisis,” Mamdani stated in response to Adams’ moves.
Economics of Freeze: 6.8 Billion Dollar Impact Over Four Years
Tenant advocates estimate a four-year freeze could save renters 6.8 billion dollars over the period, which translates to equivalent losses for property owners struggling with rising expenses. Small landlords, particularly mom-and-pop operations without portfolio diversification, face existential challenges. One Brooklyn property owner, Ebony Hannibal, manages a four-unit building with a 3,800 dollar monthly mortgage while tenants owe 100,000 dollars in back rent. Under a freeze, she faces foreclosure or forced sale into a market where property values have dropped 10 percent since 2019 rent law changes.
Political and Legal Challenges Ahead
The 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act already eliminated vacancy bonuses, apartment improvement cost recovery, and other landlord mechanisms for modest rent increases. When operating expenses rise faster than capped rents, buildings deteriorate. Mamdani could challenge board members’ qualifications or seek legislative changes to remove the for-cause removal standard. However, such legal action presents risks. Courts have never removed a board member for qualification failures, and legislative rewrites could invite city council involvement, potentially weakening mayoral control entirely. Mamdani’s team acknowledged the political mathematics: rent freeze votes unlikely before October 1, 2027.
